Curious George

Hamilton's school instructed us parents to send our children to school today dressed as their favorite book characters. Hamilton's favorite book right now is Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes by Beatrix Potter; however, dressing as one of those characters would have taken much effort on my part. Since we still have a monkey costume from Halloween and a red t-shirt, Curious George it is!

Stealth with a 9-month-old

Collier was contentedly playing by himself this afternoon while Hamilton was still sleeping, and I thought it was so cute. I dragged out my big camera to sneak to video him. After two seconds, he saw me--obviously my stealth manuevers need a little work. Immediately he stops playing and begins crawling toward me and on me and over me and around me.

I took these next shots while Collier was crawling all over me. He thought it was a great game to capture the lens of my camera. Since he doesn't spit up now at the slightest provocation, I'm much more eager and willing to play "downwind" of his mouth.

Sunny Saturday

Our Saturday at the farm was delightful with cool, sunny weather and clear skies. Claire spent most of the day at the horse farm, so we walked up to watch during her riding lesson.

Claire's feet didn't reach the stirrups, though they were positioned as short as they could go. After failed attempts to remedy the situation--involving stuffing packages of baby wipes in the bottom of the stirrups, Mr. Morgan cut two-by-fours into blocks to use as a shim in the stirrup.

Hamilton enjoyed the big-fence barrier between himself and the horses. He was not interested in getting any closer, though he enjoyed watching Claire mount the horse and ride.

Hamilton loves long walks around the farm, and we stop every few steps to look at this or that or play in the dirt.

Valentine's Stash

Yesterday the boys and I went to Hamilton's Valentine's Day party at school. On Monday we'd made his Valentines to hand out to his friends; well, I wrote his name on the easy three-dollar boxed kind, and he affixed a sticker. I think he enjoyed the little bit of "crafting" that we did together because he told me later, "Val-ties be so fun!"

The party was festive, and Hamilton loved the mini cupcakes and cookies served. He especially loved his stash of cards and candy he amassed once we got home to examine his goodie bag and open his cards received in the mail.

He calls it his "Val-tie tuff," since he doesn't pronounce any "s" sound that's paired with another hard consonant at the beginning of syllables. Here are some other examples that I hear almost daily:

• Teem-rowlr - "Look at this 'teem-rowlr'! Dat's a big 'teem-rowlr'!"
• Tahp - "Baby, 'tahp' dat! 'Tahp' dat right now!"
• Tehp - "Dis a big 'tehp,' Mommy. Don't fall down bump your head."
• Pihp-qweek - "I color, Mommy, with my 'pihp-qweek.'" (Crayola's markers)
• Baak-set - "Dis a 'baak-set' bawl."
• Bihk-set - "I want honey on my 'bihk-set.'"
• Shoo-drifer - "I fix dis with my 'shoo-drifer.'"
• Cooss - "'Cooss' me, Mommy." (as he walks by)
• Coot - "'Coot' me, pweez." [closer to the table]

Monkey Bars, Haircuts, and Lobsters

We had a gloriously low-key weekend, so Saturday we took the kids to the park. Once we arrived, I realized Hamilton's outfit matched the playground equipment. He didn't quite get the concept of the monkey bars, so he started doing pull-ups.

The brisk, dry day led to some crazy static in Hamilton's hair--amplified by his need for a haircut.

We cheated Collier out of a nap by dragging him from the house midmorning on such a cold day, so he just chilled in his stroller and kept Fatty company while we played.

Hamilton loved the slide. He and Mr. Morgan spent lots of time sending Hamilton's little car up and down the slide.

After our playing at the park, we dropped by the Kochs' house because we were close. Mr. Morgan commented how fun it was to have time to drop by our friends' house on a weekend. They have a dedicated train table at their house, so Hamilton was content to play for hours. So we stayed through lunch and a glass of Reisling.

On Sunday I did cut Hamilton's hair, though he wasn't thrilled about it. We plopped him in front of his new favorite Thomas video, promised him gummies as a treat for sitting through the haircut, and started at the back of his head with the shearing. Mr. Morgan calls this expression the "Taylor face" because I occasionally make this face too. Actually as a kid, I used to make fun of Travis for making this face; he did it all the time!

I'm always amazed at how long I'll let his hair get before making myself cut it. I'll post an "after" picture soon. It's a vast improvement over the Beiber shag he had.

Mr. Morgan is studying for an upcoming certification test, so after the haircut I took the boys on a walk through the neighborhood, giving him study time. The day before we'd seen this vehicle on our afternoon stroll to which Hamilton remarked, "I luff this van!" After my posting of this picture on Facebook got lots of love (and an uncredited reposting by a high school friend), I thought I'd share the picture and Hamilton's cute comment with my readers.

He's been "luffing" loads of things lately. In the grocery store today, he was excited to pass the live lobster tank. I informed him, "Those are lobsters, Hamilton."

He replied, "I luff lobsters."

Ducks

Monday I took the boys for a walk despite the chilly weather, and we were surrounded by ducks when we walked over to the drainage ponds. Obviously the ducks are accustomed to humans--especially those who might have food, so we got a great look at them. Next time we'll take bread, so they can nibble from our hands.

Hamilton kept telling himself and me, "Ducks no bite me; ducks no hurt me." His first few times sounded more like a question, but eventually he could see that indeed the ducks would not bite us.

Once they discovered we offered no food, they lost interest in us. However, Hamilton wanted to walk with the ducks even when they slipped into the water. It took a bit of coaxing to get him back on the sidewalk for the rest of our walk.

Already February

Part of me feels like January was so long, but then I remember it's February already--several days in and no blog post yet. I documented our past week with a mix of Instagram pictures and shots with my big camera.

1. Last Saturday my "real" friend and blog friend came to town for a wedding, so we got to keep their darling boy for the afternoon. Hamilton was super excited for a new friend to play with boss around. (I wonder whom he gets that from?) Though the boys napped for the majority of the time that Judah was here at our house, I did get a few shots of the boys' playing in the backyard.

Hamilton explains how the digger works and carefully makes sure Judah "does it right."

 

2. Monday Mr. Morgan had AAA come to the house to tow our car to the mechanic. Hamilton was in awe of the sweet driver, big truck with a tilting bed, and strong winch that dragged our car from the street onto the truck's bed. For the remainder of the day Hamilton keep repeating, "Man take car to mechanic."

3. Yesterday I took Collier for his nine-month checkup, and he's progressing nicely according to the doctor. Collier did his quick flip from back to belly for her, his pulling up, and his crawling around. He's 18 pounds and 7 ounces, and he's a long boy at 30 inches. He charmed all the nurses with his big smile, and they all remarked how similar he looked to Hamilton (though Hamilton was not with us).

Our sweet boy still wakes up happy, and with only two teeth showing so far, there's lots of drool accompanying his other incoming teeth. Mr. Morgan teases him about having a mullet now, so we'll probably be trimming his hair soon.

I put him in his Exersaucer a lot because, otherwise, I have to keep such a close eye on him--what he's climbing on, putting in his mouth, bumping into, etc. He still enjoys the Exersaucer and for long periods of time usually, so I'm thankful.

Collier opens his mouth all the time, but I love this expression because he seems to be shocked and appalled at what he sees. He's just looking at Hamilton though, and Collier's used to all of Hamilton's antics by now.

Though Collier's been pulling up for several weeks now, he's been trying out the stairs recently but not getting higher than the second step. Well, yesterday I turned my back for just a minute, and he was halfway up. I took out my phone and followed close behind as he went almost all the way up!

And I'm glad I was close behind because once he got three steps from the top, he changed his mind: He turned sideways and started to come back down, i.e., topple down the stairs. Hamilton always had a certain amount of fear and "good sense," but Collier shows no grasp of either at this point.

4. Since Hamilton's now sleeping in a toddler bed that he can crawl out of, I've been getting up several times each morning (in the wee morning hours) to put him back in bed, explaining that it's not time to wake up yet. I kept thinking there had to be some kind of toddler alarm clock with colors instead of numbers to let him know that it's not time to wake up. I hadn't searched yet, but I was reading Brantley's blog post about her similar experience with her two-year-old Roper. I was so excited to discover such a thing exists! I ordered this colored clock for Hamilton, and here's to hoping my own early-morning alarm (though cute and sweet!) can stay quiet in the bed for longer.

5. I'm hoping to potty-train Hamilton soon, so I've ordered this ebook that friends have had good success with. I'll keep you posted on our progress.